Benjamin Omoike l November 27, 2016
LAGOS – The Lagos State Government, at the weekend, unveiled the Epe Master Plan with a promise to turn the ancient town to another Dubai in Nigeria.
The Government appealed to residents to comply with the master plan to enable it implement the plan, stating that the new plan, which is robust, captures farming and tourist sites, an airport as well as other multi-billion naira projects which would be implemented in the nearest future.
Speaking at the stakeholders’ interactive session with residents, held at Recreation Centre, Epe, the State’s Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Hon. Wasiu Anifowoshe, called for the understanding of residents for speedy implementation of the plan.
He assured that those whose houses were affected by the ongoing urban renewal projects would be adequately compensated, adding that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was doing everything possible to ensure the property owners were not left out of the proposed project.
According to him, “Compensation of the affected owners of affected houses will be done very soon. The Computation of the compensation is ongoing. I have said it before, nobody will left out, once your property was affected.”
The Commissioner, who appealed to the residents to commend Governor Ambode for the magnitude and quality of projects being executed in the ancient town, said if not for his intervention in the infrastructural development, the people would have remained neglected for years.
“If the Governor doesn’t do this now, before we can have another Governor from Epe, all of us in this gathering must have died. Let’s tell ourselves the home truth,” he said.
Also speaking, General Manager, Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority, LASPPPA, Remi Oni-Orisan said the purpose of the gathering was to deepen the peoples’ understanding of the reform of the planning system which, he said, would go a long way in making planning play a better role in guiding the sustainable urbanisation of the area.
Oni-Orisan said: “A major fall out of the enforcement is that it does not only lead to huge losses, it also creates bad blood between the government and the governed and may probably result in suspicion and rebellion on the part of the populace. Demolition of properties could also aggravate psychological and medical breakdown of those concerned, which in most cases results in untimely deaths.”
According to him, as more people choose to live and build in cities, the responsibility of planning and managing the developmental process becomes more herculean especially in the area where development is often championed by profit-driven individuals, families and organisations, while the responsibility of providing infrastructure is abandoned to the government.
In his remarks, Special Adviser to the Governor on Community and Communication, Kehinde Bamigbetan, said the interactive session was meant to carry the residents along in the development which is meant to improve their living condition.
All the traditional rulers present at the meeting, appealed to the state government to ensure that those who deserved compensation were adequately taken care of, so as to cushion the effect their demolished properties had on them.
